Shonda Rhimes to Dartmouth Grads: Ditch the Dream and Be a Doer

Her commencement speech was full of incredible advice.

While she was quite self-deprecating, billing her advice as "Stuff Some Random Alum Who Makes TV Shows Thinks You Should Know Before You Graduate," Shonda Rhimes delivered a poignant commencement speech to Dartmouth's graduating class of 2014. And while she admitted to being so nervous she could poop (her words) and completely unqualified to give advice, the Grey's Anatomy and Scandal creator did, in fact, dish out some extremely useful information. Consider this graduation address handled, Olivia Pope-style.

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"Be a doer, not a dreamer."
"When people give these kinds of speeches, they usually tell you all kinds of wise and heartfelt things. They have wisdom to impart. They have lessons to share. They tell you: Follow your dreams. Listen to your spirit. Change the world. Make your mark. Find your inner voice and make it sing. Embrace failure. Dream. Dream and dream big. As a matter of fact, dream and don't stop dreaming until your dream comes true. I think that's crap. I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, powerful, engaged people? Are busy doing ... Ditch the dream. Be a doer, not a dreamer."

"Find a cause you love."
"You are going to need to spend a lot of time out in the real world trying to figure out how to stop being a lost loser so one cause is good. But find one. And devote some time every week to it ... Volunteer some hours. Focus on something outside yourself. Devote a slice of your energies towards making the world suck less every week."

"A hashtag is not a movement."
"Hashtags are very pretty on Twitter. I love them. I will hashtag myself into next week. But a hashtag is not a movement. A hashtag does not make you Dr. King. A hashtag does not change anything. It's a hashtag. It's you, sitting on your butt, typing into your computer and then going back to binge-watching your favorite show."

"Anyone who tells you they are doing it all perfectly is a liar."
"Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means that I am failing in another area of my life. That is the Faustian bargain one makes with the devil that comes with being a powerful working woman who is also a powerful mother. You never feel one hundred percent OK, you never get your sea legs, you are always a little nauseous. Something is always lost. Something is always missing ... And yet, I want my daughters to see me and know me as a woman who works ... The woman I am because I get to run Shondaland, because I get write all day, because I get to spend my days making things up, that woman is a better person — and a better mother."

Her own dream of becoming Toni Morrison never came to fruition — and it doesn't matter.
"My dreams did not come true. But I worked really hard. And I ended up building an empire out of my imagination. So my dreams? Can suck it. You can wake up one day and find that you are interesting and powerful and engaged. You can wake up one day and find that you are a doer."